eurealist.co.uk

This odious little man clearly has no intention of accepting the results of the Irish referendum, instead he want to re-hash the arguments played out in the run up to the referendum and pretend that somehow that will answer the concerns of the Irish people.

No it will not, they have been presented with your view since January 1st considered your view and the have voted to reject both your view and the treaty, that is the end of the matter.

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The pressure is mounting on the Irish to vote yes! this time it is the French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner who is interfering, claiming that a no vote in Ireland would be ignored and the rest of the EU would go ahead with implementing the treaty anyway whilst Ireland would be expected to put this treaty back on the drawing board, which I presume means the Irish would be expected to vote again.

He said the Irish should show their gratitude for all of the EU money Ireland had received which had enabled it to become one of the prosperous member states.

Kouchner said that a

“No” vote would be met by “gigantic incomprehension”

in the rest of Europe.

Well I have news for him! no it would not, perhaps in the realms of the political elite who have ignored the French and Dutch No votes and re-introduced the rejected constitution under a different name, who seem to have fallen for their own propaganda, but not by the peoples of the EU states, many of whom are seething with frustration at being once again denied a vote on an important move towards further integration.

It is questionable whether France could legally implement the treaty in spite of an Irish No! As the treaty cannot come into force until it has been ratified by all member states. So this is just posturing and scaremongering by the French government, who have denied the French people a vote on this issue because they are terrified of the consequences.

EUOBSERVER

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British political parties do not serve the interests of democracy because instead of representing the people, they impose their own ideas on the public. The party workers choose what policies they will offer for public consumption work out their arguments and those of the opposition parties, they will then only talk about their chosen subjects. Thus creating the impression of an open and all encompassing political debate whilst in reality they are confining the debate to their chosen areas.

In this they are backed by a supine main stream media who seem quite happy to go along with the impression that our political parties are actually offering us a choice, in the main the MSM is content to issue - in some cases line for line - the parties press releases, or invent a debate by only concentrating on the frivolous, there is no real attempt to widen the political debate or serious attempt to pursue areas not sanctioned by the parties.

(more…)

The commission is not expected to mention the New EU council president’s salary in its first budget draft for fear of upsetting the current ratification process of the EU treaty - particularly in Ireland which is to have a referendum.

(more…)

President of the EU Commission is very concerned about Democracy freedoms and the wishes of the people.

EU chief concerned about Zimbabwe election delay

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso says he is very concerned by delays in the release of results of Zimbabwe’s presidential election. He told reporters in Brussels that one thing should be made very clear to President Robert Mugabe and that is that the people of Zimbabwe want change, democracy and freedom.

  EU Referendum

Recipients of extremely handsome pensions from the EU, that is former Commissioners and MEPs, do not have to declare their pecuniary or any other interests when speaking in praise of the European project. It is worth recalling that the EU has the right to withdraw that pension, should any recipient make a statement that could be deemed to be against the interests of that organization. I don’t suppose they have ever done that to a former high official, not even when Lord Dahrendorf, a former Commissioner, spoke his many words of criticism.For all of that, if a research assistant has to declare his or her employment outside the House of Lords, handsome pensions from the EU cannot be seen as irrelevant to the matter in hand.

Harriet Harmon deputy leader of the Labour Party, it seems feels it is necessary to wear a flack jacket when walking the streets of her own constituency in broad daylight.

She has apparently insisted she does not need to wear protective armour and only did to as a courtesy to the several police officers who were guarding her on her walk about.

 I just thought it is April 1st this is a joke isnt it?

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Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Someone has created a fake of my blog!

Following a Google Alert I was very surprised to find a replica of my blog, that someone has bizarrely gone to a lot of trouble making.

Quite who is behind this hoax is a complete mystery but I thought I should make it quite clear I have absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with it. The fake blog address is http://corbettmep.blogspot.com/, and they appear to be simply be cutting pasting from my actual blog.

Thanks!

Labels: blogging

posted by Richard Corbett MEP @ 14:59

I take back everything I said! My link leads to the one with comments, I will not link to a blog that posts contentious views of the EU but does not permit the other side the right of reply
So Mr Corbett if you have not yet got the message from the spoof and the people of this country, we want our voices to be heard and are sick and tired of being ignored by our employees.

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Daniel Finkelstein in the Times

Says, we pay for MPs. They are our employees. But how badly we treat them as we argue about trivia such as their expenses.

Is`nt it funny how the concept of English common law can be raised to protect MPs when it suits them to do so, but has no consideration at all when it comes to the legislation they let pass through our parliament.

This is the same lot who voted through the Lisbon treaty which will have the affect of outsourcing much of their remaining work load to the EU, the same lot who voted to break their election pledges to allow a referendum on the Constitution and also voted against the amendment on that treaty:

Notwithstanding any provision of the European Communities Act 1972, nothing in this Act shall affect or be construed by any court in the United Kingdom as affecting the supremacy of the United Kingdom Parliament.

It is long past time that we made them accountable for their own actions, just over thirty years ago this parliament was responsible for 100% of all laws passed in this country, that has been reduced drastically in the intervening years with measures they have introduced to outsource power to the regions and to the EU. Given that every one of them take an oath of allegiance to protect this sovereign nation state it is clear they have broken that oath.

If they are our employees they are only employed for a period of up to five years and entrusted with our individual sovereignty only for that period, they are not given the authority to pass the power we give then out of our control, but must hand it back in it’s entirety after that period, this they have failed to do, so as employees they have broken their own contract of employment. Mr Finkelstein would probably argue against that, if that is the case than may I snuggest with the utmost respect that he does not try to raise the spectre of British Constitution when the very people he is using it to protect hold that constitution is such contempt.

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I have refused to link to Richard Corbett MEP because I understood that he did not allow comments for the same reason I have avoided even reading him. For some reason I just did and it is evident that he has now authorised comments.

Hence I have now added him to my blogroll by way of welcoming him to the world of Bloging.

The Daily Mail reports that Tory MEP Sir Robert Atkins has been forced to defend his fact finding trip to the USA. His claim for £2,500 was approved by the EU parliament

I have a long-standing interest in US politics which goes back to 1972

That’s alright then, I have a long standing interest in New Zealand Fly fishing that goes back to 1975, can someone tell me who will pay for my fact finding mission please.

Oh! yes just by the very strangest of coincidences is seems that Sir Robert’s son who is a Brussels lobbyist, was marrying his American fiancée just at the time Sir Robert chose to go on his fact finding mission.

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I have been reading and exchanging some views with NM on his blog, Nose Monkey`s EUtopia my blog being almost dormant.

I should say that on many issues I do tend to agree with the views as presented on the blog, until that is it comes to the EU, there I am afraid I tend to part company. It is not that NM is an out and out unthinking Europhile, he is to my mind rather an optimistic sort, who seems to think the EU can be reformed where I see the building blocks and scaffolding of the supra government the EU is fast becoming, NM only sees evidence of the inability of the EU to ever reach that goal. Whereas I do not believe the EU can be reformed because I just do not see any evidence historically or the present that any reform is on the cards anytime in future, NM sees great hope that at some point reform will take place.

His recent post

Cameron, the Tories’ confusing EU politics, and a chance for reform

Questions why David Cameron is still supporting a referendum after the other two parties backed down on the issue.

This is somewhat evidence, of the previously noted, mental ability that many who support the EU have of putting their own thoughts into the minds of others and then being or acting surprised when the others do not follow the forecast chain of events. In NM mind it was obvious that Cameron did not actually want a referendum and only supported one for political reasons. It is therefore inconceivable that the Conservatives should stick to their election promise when offered a chance to renege, hence the inquiry.

But now we can reflect that there must be another reason for Cameron sticking to the referendum promise. One I hasten to add that does not materialise for several paragraphs, (more later) but when we do eventually get there it appears, in the mind of NM at least, that Cameron has a cunning plan. If he succeeds in getting a referendum the likely outcome would be no. But now it is time for Cameron (who by this time has apparently been elected Prime Minster) to put his cunning plan into action, the no vote would enable Cameron to draw out the whole populist process for years with countless follow-up referenda. And it would also provide a handy buffer against the withdrawalists by taking away the Lisbon Treaty’s introduction of procedures by which a member state can quit the EU, meaning he can safely play around without the threat of having to take the EU-bashing to the logical extreme and giving up membership.

Now why would Cameron want to do such a thing, well apparently this would eventually bring about a multi speed or multi tiered EU something hinted at last year, so there you have it the Cameron plan revealed in all its glory.

In the intervening paragraphs NM explores the problems of Cameron not understanding realpolitik because if he did he would “realise that he needs to maintain good relations with as many EU political leaders as he possibly can if he’s going to have any hope of doing deals in Brussels when he becomes Prime Minister.

It’s basic diplomacy - act nice towards people, they’re more likely to accommodate your wishes.”

This apparently means that when we eventually do come to leave the EU we will get a better deal if we are nice to them. Mr Cameron’s plan it seems would “ piss off all the other EU member states no end. Cameron would position himself as the pariah of Europe, pissing everyone off by his obstructionism and stalling EU reform yet further.”

After we have negotiated the thoughts of Mr Camaron NM actually starts to speak to me; he says for the last decade we have been asking the wrong question we should be asking “have we got the right option for the EU” NM is pro EU but not this EU. Well on that last we can agree I am not pro this EU either, as I mentioned before I do not see it changing.

The problem is that no one with any influence is advocating an approach which would bring about the changes everyone is quite happy to go along with EU flow.

I strikes me that if they do not go with the flow then they are likely to piss off the rest of the EU and thus make our exit that much harder. It also seems to be the case that the only way to reform the EU would be to go directly against the flow, after all the flow is towards further political integration. I do not see how we are ever going to go against the flow and not at the same time piss off the rest of the EU.

This introduces a further point; if by going against the EU flow we piss off all the others, then obviously all the others do not want to go in our direction, otherwise equally obviously we would not be pissing them off, so going against the flow will be necessary to create reform of the EU but at the same time will make it harder to achieve that reform.

To be honest it looks very much like a catch 22 situation on top of wanting to have ones cake and eating it.

Would it not be simpler to decide what we want from the EU see if the Lisbon Treaty works towards that objective and accept or reject it on those terms. Then the EU can decide whether to work towards our objectives or ask us to leave.

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As individuals, some MPs may be – and indeed are – admirable people. As a collective, they are a useless bunch of parasites who have colluded in their own abolition. All that remains is to do the decent thing and close down Parliament. Turn it into a museum by all means, but don’t waste our time and money pretending that MPs have a purpose any longer.

EU Referendum

Why Europe’s National Politicians Sign Away National Sovereignty

From Brussels Journal

Well worth reading for a good explanation of the problem we face, it is not only the EU but our own elected leaders who are scheming towards the destruction of our nation state.

Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague said if the Prime Minister reneged on his party’s pledge to hold a referendum

“no one will trust him on anything else”.

I said if David Cameron reneged on his 2006 election pledge to remove Conservative MEP`s from the pro-constitutional EPP–ED group.

“no one will trust him on anything else”.

Whilst Gordon Brown defends his signing of the EU Constitution / Treaty, claiming that there will be no more “institutional” changes for the next ten years, (as if that matters) The EU takes up the suggestion proposed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy to set up a “reflection group” which is to look at the next round of development of the EU. This group of nine wise! men will be led by Former Spanish PM Felipe Gonzalez and will be mandated to study almost all subjects, including the EU’s economic and social model, sustainable development, migration, global stability, climate change, and the fight against international crime and terrorism.

So we can all rest assured that once the EU gets its Constitution ratified there will be no further changes required for ten whole years, and the pigs are now lining up on the runway!

The Scotsman reports that

“MPS are to get an extra week off at the end of this month - just weeks after coming back from their bumper three-month summer recess - because the government has run out of business.

Harriet Harman, the Commons leader, broke the good news to MPs yesterday, also outlining even more time away from Westminster for them over the coming year. MPs will spend one in three weeks out of Westminster - taking their time away from the Commons from 15 weeks to 18 weeks.”

The first commenter on the site asks “Why do we need a constant stream of new legislation anyway?”

Well unfortunately for that person, the EU is there to step into the breach and continue the endless stream of new legalisation.

The Bruges Group reports that from the 29th August to 21st September the EU has passed 101 new laws which will impact on the UK. This adds to the 159 issued the previous month the 44 From 11th to 18th July the 33 From 1st to 10th July the EU, the109 From 20th June to 30th June, the 112 from 27th May to 19th June and so on.

Of course as our MPs do not get the chance to debate any of these, and seemingly as they have very little lese to do with their time, perhaps we should start debating a Westminster cull.

If we did it might give them pause when it comes to debating the EU Constitution, they might start to see that with ever more laws being decided in the EU being beyond the power of Westminster, there will be an ever forceful argument about the need for so many MPs.

The Telegraph reports that Blair may announce his resignation as Labour leader before next Thursday’s local elections in an attempt to limit the expected electoral damage. May the first seems to be the day most favoured by the pundits who say that the announcement would dominate the news in the run up to the local elections and overshadow any inquest into the expected Labour defeat.

The sooner the better as it would seem that Blair has totally lost his marbles and is increasingly relying on his own twisted logic, which can be evidenced by the Timothy Garton Ash interview in the Guardian yesterday;

Whilst accepting that the UK remains “stolidly Eurosceptic” Of course this is mostly due to the Eurosceptic media. HA Ha. Nevertheless “the British people are sensible enough to know that, even if they have a certain prejudice about Europe, they don’t expect their government necessarily to share it or act upon it”.

Of course that is why we have elections in the first place so that the British people can choose their representatives but we don’t actually want them to represent us or our opinions.

When opinion polls are telling Blair and his colleagues that we do not want to give away any more power to the EU and we do not want an EU Constitution, instead of allowing us the promised vote he is doing everything he can to ensure that we do not get a chance to scupper planned integration and the erosion of even more of our powers.

Well I have news for Mr deluded Blair

Yes we do expect our government and all other political parties and political leaders to listen to the people and to act upon their wishes and we do expect a chance to voice our opinions on the political elites plans to create a United States of Europe.

Over recent years, it has become increasingly obvious that the labels ‘Conservative’ and ‘Labour’ have ceased to have any distinct meanings.

These once great political parties no longer represent different values, and their claim to stand in opposition to each other has become false.

The truth is that they now fundamentally agree on almost every one of the great issues of our time: foreign policy, the role of the state, the level of taxation and so forth. Where there still are disagreements, these tend to be artificial and largely rhetorical.

As a result, Conservative and Labour politicians have far more in common with each other than they do with the voters. They have become a single political class.

At least someone in the MSM is catching on, if you can describe thisislondon.co.uk as MSM; but as usual there is no mention of the reason why all the main parties are so close on most of the issues? Because most issues are now decided in a different forum than our national parliament and the rules and regulation emanating from that forum do bind any political party we care to elect. Unless a political party shows it willing to reassert power within the nations own parliament there is very little room left for manoeuvre, which is why only those parties which stand on a platform of leaving the EU can offer different policies.

But just in case we being to vote in very large numbers for those parties the elite political class is raising the bar, as now they want to redress their falling membership and the corresponding reduction in their finances by demanding that they should be even further isolated from any pressure to offer policies we are willing to pay for, by forcing us to pay anyway through the tax system. This will have the double affect of allowing the three main parties to dip their hands into the public purse without the need to consider that their policies are not wanted by the majority of the population, and at the same time make it even harder for any other party break into the golden circle.

A further reason to object most strongly to this contrivance of the main parties is that elections to our parliament are supposed to be free and there should be no encumbrances placed in the way of anyone whishing to stand. The sort of payments suggested will require some form of government organisation to oversee and conduct the procedure of counting the votes and making the payments this will require some form of government recognition of political parties, and we can imagine where that might lead, we already have an indication from the EU that limit payments to parties and groupings which do not conform to its objectives.

Oh dear! David Cameron suddenly decides the Conservatives do “do the EU” after all. In a long batch of waffle in the Telegraph Mr Cameron assisted by the Prime Minister of the Czech republic sets out the Conservative vision for the future of the EU, a vision based on the formation of the new political grouping they are building in the EU Parliament the Movement for European Reform

There is nothing much to say about the Conservatives leaders thoughts on the subject that has not been said thousands of times before this does not prevent the commenters in both the Times and the Telegraph saying it.

No chance of the Tories winning the next election then!

Dream on Mr Cameron. You obviously don’t know your British history - still you wouldn’t as you’re only a boy!

I take it Cameron doesn’t want to win the election then. Most of us want out of the EU not in it in any way. I hope the people wake up and realise he is Blair MK2, he’s already been to the Bilderberg meeting,

Visitors from Mars would be bemused not only by the EU, but also by David Cameron’s policy on the EU.

Reform from the inside? We’ve been trying that for years and been ignored.

If he really is going to say these things then fair enough at least he has made a decision. That decision is one of closer EU integration, of accepting that parliament is no longer relevent and that his party will be no different to NuLab.

Maybe Mr Cameron, who incidentally isn’t a leader and may never be, seems to think that having 70% of law made by the EU and not able to be repealed by any national electorate is democracy.

Apparently the EU ‘has helped entrench democracy and stability from the Baltic to the Mediterranean‘.

An interesting point - though somewhat at odds with the fact that we are not permitted a vote on our membership of it.

The Conservatives have already had their time to change the EU, they did not change anything then and they will not do it in the future. The only way for Britain is to repudiate the EU Treaties and then celebrate Freedom and independence.

Fifty years ago the people were lied to about the European Community. They are being lied to today.

The UK has paid its dues to the EU and then some. We now have no fishing industry. We have little agriculture. Democracy is now under a set of higher powers which inch by inch take more and more power.

Oh dear, so Dave thinks he can change the EU. Since 1973, after Heath sold this country out, governments have tried to change the EU without success. All they have done is reduced our sovereignty and under Blair, made sure we pay more.

An EU to be proud of’? The only one I can think of is one which we aren’t in.

It is a scandal that 80% of British law now comes from Brussels where there is no effective power of oversight.

Not so much a vision as a blurry haze of catchwords and jibberish. There is not a single substantive policy view here, not a position or an attitude. This was clearly written by a PR, buffed by a committee, with every shred of sense or meaning ripped from it and buried in trash.

There are a lot of words here, and some loosely stated sentiment, but as usual with Mr Cameron there is a complete absence of substance.

For God’s sake how many more times do we have too suffer some Tory leader saying how he wants an EU of independant states when such a thing has never been on the agenda and never will be.

If you are against further integration and protecting of the ‘nation state” then why not simply pass a law that guarantees parliament supremecy?

This is just more Cameron tosh . When will he realise that we don’t want the EU with all its corruption and sinecures . We have enough of that in this country .

Hmm! An apparently attractive philosophy, but one with all fine phrases and no specifics - sound familiar does it?

All good - that is if it had been written 15 years ago. Cameron knows this, but apparently felt that it was time to spin a bit for the benefit of the real Conservatives. The EU has other plans and is well underway to implement the United States of Europe. It would take a Margaret Thatcher to reverse the flow.

Same tired old propaganda, these statements have been debunked so many times I can not beleive they are still trying to use them.

This ‘vision’ is just the old one dressed-up to make it palatable to the individual in each state. It is more than apparent that Dave is part of a socialist agenda by these words.

Hang on! Didn’t “Dave” trot out a
similar load of tosh a few weeks
back? What has changed
meanwhile? Talk about flogging a
dead horse!

Another new idea and a fresh leader -into the meat grinder they go! How long will it be before we hear “We’re winning the battle of ideas, no really, we’re winning the argument…” Such enthusiasm, such futility.

Building “an EU to be proud of”….an oxymoron, surely.
Thanks Dave, see you at the ballot box.

Dave, you jest surely.